Russ Cargill is a corrupted official of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the commander of the Dome operation in The Simpsons Movie. He serves as the main antagonist of the movie.
History[]
Past[]
Before the events of the film, Russ studied at Harvard, attending its business school. While there he noted that they "don't teach you how to cope with loss, and handle a shotgun". He became a successful man who was eventually appointed the head of the EPA by the President.
The Simpsons Movie[]
Prior to his debut, Abe Simpson is possessed by unspecified divine forces and suddenly starts screaming that Springfield will face an upcoming cataclysmic event due to EPA, the agency Russ Cargill is in charge of Grandpa Abe even screams of other indicators of the coming of said cataclysmic event. These indicators were "twisted tail", "a thousand eyes" and "trapped forever". This is all ended with him repeatedly shouting "EEEEPPPAA" before being taken away by the Simpson family.
Russ first appears during his visit to the White House where he presented a mutant squirrel to President Schwarzenegger. Cargill explains that the pollution levels at the lake of Springfield are very high (which caused the mutation) and that they need to be contained. Cargill manages to provide five options on how to deal with the contamination, and President Schwarzenegger randomly chooses one of them, which is to encase Springfield in a huge glass dome (referred to as "Trappuccino" by the citizens) to contain the high pollution levels.
Appearing on a giant LCD screen in the dome, Cargill explains about the pollution levels and why the EPA is forced to take action by trapping the city, which obviously enrages the Springfield citizens. Eventually, the townspeople except for Ned Flanders and his kids find out that Homer Simpson was responsible for causing the pollution by dumping his pig silo into the lake in the first place, so they attempt to kill him and his family in revenge. This forces the Simpson family to escape through a sinkhole, which eventually destroys the Simpson residence.
With the news behind the cause of the pollution revealed, Cargill becomes mad with power, vowing to capture the Simpsons and confine them back in the dome, which forces the Simpsons to escape to Alaska. His next scene shows him tricking the President into choosing "Operation: Soaring Eagle", which involves killing everyone in Springfield and creating a "New Grand Canyon" (advertised by actor Tom Hanks). After Marge watches the advertisement in the television, she tries to get Homer to come with her and the kids to save Springfield, but he stubbornly refuses to help the townspeople who tried to kill him. This force makes Marge to go alone with Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Later, Homer watches a tearful message that Marge recorded over their marriage tape. Having a change of heart with the help of the boob lady, he goes to help his family save Springfield.
Meanwhile, the NSA tracks Marge's location in Seattle through a train conductor robot, who then reveals her location to Cargill, who captures the remaining Simpsons at a train station and traps them inside the dome again. When the family are brought back after Homer's failed attempt to rescue them, Cargill contacts the town once again via the screen and tells them that the EPA is going to destroy Springfield and kill everybody contained in the dome. A helicopter arrives, lifts a plug off the top of the dome, and lowers a nuclear bomb on a rope in front of the now-destroyed City Hall. Russ impatiently oversees the countdown, and Cletus Spuckler distracts him so the townspeople can escape up the rope.
Homer, who has climbed the outside of the dome, jumps through the hole and knocks everyone off of the rope, accidentally knocking the bomb inside in the process (as well as accidentally cutting the bomb's remaining countdown in half), much to the city's anger, prompting an annoyed Cargill to disappear at this point. However, Homer gets a motorcycle and, with the help of Bart, throws the bomb through the dome's "ceiling," which explodes and destroys the dome, saving Springfield from destruction and leaving Cargill's plan in vain.
While Homer and Bart land safely after jumping over Springfield Gorge, a furious Cargill suddenly appears with a shotgun and confronts the two. Cargill admits that he will accept his defeat, but only after he kills Homer as revenge for foiling his plans. Just when Cargill is about to fire, Bart distracts him with a prank name, which allows Maggie to throw a boulder on Cargill's head from behind, instantly knocking him unconscious. It’s likely that President Schwarzenegger fired him as EPA administrator and had him arrested after the events of the movie (if he survived). As he is never seen again by the Simpsons or anyone else again in Springfield.
It is unknown where he is now since he was never shown in Springfield Penitentiary after the movie. He appears in "The Walking Ned" (non-canon to the series) as one of the deceased characters from the show, now a zombie, which could possibly prove that he died from the boulder.
Other Appearances[]
Russ briefly appears in the opening sequence of the episode of season 19 called "He Loves To Fly And He D'ohs", his only appearance outside the movie so far. He was also seen in The Simpsons Comics on "The Death of Comic Book Guy Part 2", giving President Arnold Schwarzenegger the news that people will not be insulted on the internet anymore.
The president then says that he thought that he had fired him and does so after he's finished telling him. Later in the same comic, he is seen working for Mayor Quimby and telling him about the fight between the nerds and geeks. This appearance is non-canon.
Russ also appears as a limited-time character in The Simpsons: Tapped Out. He was only available during the Secret Agents 2017 event.
Trivia[]
- He is voiced by Albert Brooks who also provides the voice of Marlin from the Award-winning Pixar movie, Finding Nemo.
- When Cargill meets Homer and Bart at the gorge, his clothes are completely worn out and tattered, but it's never explained how his clothes stayed that way. It may be possible, however, that he could be standing near the dome when it shattered to pieces. Another possibility is that he climbed up the gorge, ripping his clothes in the process.
- Cargill wasn't always the original villain for The Simpsons Movie. The original villain was Hank Scorpio from The Simpsons episode, "You Only Move Twice". It was changed because Scorpio was found too likable to be an all out villain, also it would've confused audience members who didn't see the episode he was featured in.
- Although Mr. Burns, Sideshow Bob, Kang and Kodos are the main antagonists of the series, Cargill has the role of the main antagonist of the film because he had bigger plans than anyone else. He also is the first villain of the franchise to nearly destroy an entire town. It was changed because Scorpio was found too likable to be an all out villain.
- Additionally, Russ Cargill is arguably eviler than Mr. Burns, even outside of the film as he was not very evil in the film. This is because Russ Cargill imprisoned Springfield (to the point of it running low of resources) and was happy to destroy it, tried to kill Homer and is downright mad with power, even more so than Burns who, while he is a murderer and does want power, would (probably) not go to the point of destroying an entire city (this is proven wrong in the episode "The Fool Monty", where Mr. Burns tries to surround Springfield with a giant dome, mirroring Trappaccuino).
- Also, Cargill is in terms in personality with Sideshow Bob over their feud against the Simpson family, as they were both willing to destroy Springfield (though Sideshow Bob only attempted this out of his hatred of television while Cargill attempted it out of greed for power). However, Sideshow Bob happens to have some redeeming features as he did love his family and was willing to change his ways (to no avail); Cargill, on the other hand, remains vindictive of his plan to kill the Simpson family and destroy Springfield, resulting his defeat and proving himself to be eviler than Sideshow Bob.
- On top of that, Russ Cargill is arguably more evil than other major Simpsons villains such as Cecil Terwilliger and Fat Tony, arguably making him the evilest villain in the entire Simpsons franchise. Furthermore, him nearly blowing the town up is the worst deed committed by any villain throughout the series.
- Russ Cargill is the only villain in the series whose fate is ambiguous as his death was never confirmed due to "The Walking Ned" being non-canon.
- He will become Winnie the Pooh, Ash Ketchum, Ronald McDonald, Spyro, Miss Frizzle, Scooby-Doo, Matt, Oobi, Buster Bunny, Stanley Griff, Princess Aurora, Simba, Godzilla, Oliver, Hank Hill, Yakko, Wakko and Dot's enemy in Pooh's Adventures of The Simpsons Movie.
- He will become George, Harold, Mr. Krupp, Red, CatDog, Max Goof and Tarzan's enemy in George, Harold and Mr. Krupp's Adventures of The Simpsons Movie and in the bonus ending, he will join The Association Of Evilness.
- Russ Cargil will make his official debut as a member of The Association Of Evilness in George, Harold and Mr. Krupp Meet The Goonies.
Gallery[]
